Blood Scorpion: Widowmaker Chronicles
by Travellers all
Summary: We are a specialized team of hunters. We are Scavengers. We are Blood Scorpions.
1. Chapter 1: Blood Scorpions like us

_Yeah, I'm a freeborn. People don't like us. That doesn't matter. I know that there is power at my fingertips that many trueborn only dream of feeling. I know who I am. I am a Blood Scorpion._

My conglomerate Mech rumbles under me as the powerful Goliath reactor behind me started up. The stolen Awesome heat sinks on the sides glow with excess energy absorbed from the surrounding air. My sensors tell me that all four of my missile racks are fully loaded and intact, and the heavy Vulcans on the arm mounts swivel upwards in a subtle salute. I grinned into the video panel before me, communicating to the three others in my team that I was ready. Nostromo replied with a nod of his own Mech's cockpit, while Kitty and Emily revved their chainsaw arms in sync. We were a specialized squad in the Blood Scorpion family. Our name was Widow-maker, and for a very good reason. While the Blood Scorpions were already a tribe of scavengers, we took the scavenging to a new extreme. Our mechs were made of parts from numerous types of mechs. (Whether they belonged to us or not.)

_My own Mech consisted of a Kage battle armor suit inside a cockpit welded from scraps of a Firefly, fastened to the leg mounts of a Sirrocco, Two Argus auto cannons, Four Heat Sinks off an Awesome, Cyclops com suite, Raven sensor package, and Kodiak arms._

_My teammates Mechs had parts from various other Mechs. Mostly stolen parts. We took what we needed to survive, and moreover, to thrive. The parts we stole were used until we could pawn them off._

As the four of our Mech's stood in the freezing hail outside base camp, the four of us withstood the cold inside our warm cockpits. I listened to Kitty whistling to herself as her windshield fogged up under the sauna-like heat she preferred. I grinned and looked out my own Mech's viewport, which at current was little more than a roll cage holding my Kage battle suit inside it. I was protected from the cold, although I didn't need to be.

As I turned back to the scenery in front of me, I noticed that my radar was picking up something strange, a very big, very steady heat signature. I clicked the comm. button and shouted to the others. They spun in the direction I indicated, running their weapons up to full power in a few seconds. I stared out into the storm and my mech took two steps forward, splashing in the half melted hail. I linked out to them, requesting their intentions, and got nothing in reply. Nostromo's mech aimed directly at the middle of the group and launched vertically, leaving six trails of steam as it cleared the ground. As he disappeared, Kitty and Emily ran their Mech's up beside mine, rail guns spinning fast enough to be a blur, even to me. I targeted the leader again, and tried to hail him again, this time eliciting a response, "We come to eliminate you freeborn scum. To exterminate all of you, once and for all."

I smirked behind my visor and replied, "Well, You might have a hard time doing that."

My Mech started sprinting towards them, claws out, Auto cannons spitting hail outward, and my feral roar tearing past the soundproof seal on the visor, piercing the raging storm and perforating it with a rage unmatched by ANY trueborn. I collided with the lead Mech, ripping my claw through the pilot of a mech of an unknown distinction. The next Mech I collided with was bigger, almost matching the 105 tons of my own, but not matching the 90 meters I covered each second. I tore the torso off this one, spinning it and using its own strengths against it, forcing it to open fire on its own troops. Kitty and Emily tore in behind me, shredding Mechs left and right. You might be wondering where Nostromo's 80 ton mech went. It dropped into the middle of the army, its bulk squashing several Mechs into the mud, and causing them to start a countdown timer for meltdown. They exploded; raining mech parts everywhere, the battle became chaos.

I tried to contact home base for reinforcements, but the signal couldn't get out. I turned to the others, and saw that we were fully surrounded. Wonderful. I glared through my visor until I noticed a warning on my HUD, stating a breach in my armor's insulation. I looked down and saw a bloodsicle sticking out of my stomach, and growing. I groaned and realized that I was losing too much blood, far too fast. Everything went blurry, and then disappeared.


	2. Chapter 1: Remix

**AN: Nostromo's POV of the battle**

**Hello, my name is Katana. Nostromo Katana. I am the second in command of the Widow-maker squad of the Blood Scorpions. I pilot the Axis Prime, a customized Mech constructed about a modified Kage Battle Armor. I am a freeborn hybrid, Half human, One Fourth Condor, and One Fourth Burmese Python.**

Watching for Draco's signal my 240 ton (80 ton dry and unloaded) mech, The Axis Prime (**The Axis Prime, a unique craft, even among the scavengers. It is built around a modified fusion of Kage, Aerie, Djinn, Infiltrator MKII, Raiden, and Salamander. The Mech itself has a Raven for a head, Fused Dire Wolf and Warhammer legs, A powerful set of Blood Asp legs have been reworked into arms, and mounted to various places are a running tab of 78 double heat sinks. It carries a record setting 36 various (and upgraded) Jump jets scavenged from everything (Ranging from Assault to Light mechs). The Primary unique feature is a long piece of folded alloy that makes one imagine a Samurai's Katana of old.**), shakes a little bit. The cold and hail are penetrating nearly to my hybrid bones. Draco gives the signal, a subtle salute of his machine guns. I respond with a nod of my sensor package/ head. Off to my left I can hear my girlfriend revving her mech chainsaw and Vulcan cannons. On my right Draco's girl is powering up her own mech. The Axis stretches up toward the sky copying my personal movements; I crouch into a digi-grade combat stance. It's party time.

Draco hails an incoming mech, it does not respond. My long range sensors take note of model and affiliation almost faster than I can think. Trueborn scum. I fire every thruster I have and climb rapidly to almost 50 Km. Over the comm. I can hear Draco roaring, that's my signal. Flipping my thrusters from unstoppable to immovable my 80 ton Axis suddenly acts as if it weighs ten or twenty times that, falling from the sky so fast that the altimeter can't keep up. My eyes are the only trustable sensor at this point. Exactly 30 meters from the ground I pour on the hydraulics that straighten the two legs. The concussive wave buries the reverse-legs to the ankle and removes almost a ½ Km sq. of enemy mechs. My Vulcan and PPCs are tearing into them. I turn and see Draco's mech slump over, his status scan says unconscious.

I dive for Draco to protect him until he wakes, but out of the corner of my eye see the girls back-to-back and losing power rapidly. If their mechs shut down, they could be killed; or worse captured. My thrusters are back to full power, but I can only rescue one other mech. **"Sorry Draco, my brother, I chose my girl over you. But you'll survive, you always do."** I ran off with my tail between my legs and my girlfriend in my arms. I crest the hill only to see a line of Fireflys. If I wasn't carrying Emily's mech I could outrun, but I can't abandon her. I lighten my load by burning off almost four tons in missiles and slugs, but I still can't outrun them. I shove my claw hand through the shattered canopy and lift her unconscious body into my own. She can get a new mech runs through my mind as several thousand missiles slam into me from behind. The Axis lands and I only manage to groan as the shock twists the unprepared legs, ruining the myomers that move them. **"Switch Autopilot from fight to flight. Live to fight another day."** I pass out knowing that I tried the coward's way out and failed, the Axis still trying to stand up on broken legs.


	3. Chapter 2: Escape

I woke up laying on a rough metal surface, in a facility that I didn't recognize. When I went to sit up, I heard someone shriek. My vision cleared up quickly and I saw where I was. The Morgue. Fabulous. Why did they have to think I was dead? Oh, yeah, Big chunk torn out of my stomach. I dropped off the table and grabbed a pair of pants. As I stretched my tail and wings out to their full length, I could see the fear in the guard's eyes. He must have thought that I was some kind of monster. I was, but that was beside the point.

I hissed at him "Where is the rest of my team. Tell me, or you'll end up looking like that!" I grabbed a corpse and crushed the skull in my bare hand, which incited action from the man.

He gasped out "They. They're down the hall. Room three. Don't kill me." I stepped past him and headed down the hall, leaving the guard in a puddle of something. My vision hadn't quite gotten back to full color yet. I sprinted to the room where the rest of my team was, and I broke in. Kitty squealed and wrapped me in a bear hug, sort of, since her arms didn't quite reach all the way around my massive torso. I looked at them and led them to the hangar, which I'd passed on the way there. These morons weren't very bright evidently. We clambered into our hulking monstrosities and powered them up. As we exited the building, I saw a familiar and friendly sight coming over the hill. It wasn't the most attractive mech in the galaxy, but it didn't need to be. The Blood Scorpion Wheeled Facility crossed over the hill at nearly top speed, which was roughly 200 km/h. The front wheels left the ground followed by the second set before I noticed that it was on a kamikaze course. The forward hatch was open, but it was still 10 meters off the ground. That was going to be tough for my mech to jump, but it was easy for the others.

Nostromo slipped his mech up behind mine and latched on, preparing to vault both his ultra light, and my heavy assault mech up the necessary distance. We charged at the open door and launched up into the air. I heard the clang of mech footpads scraping the floor as Nostromo let go, dropping me onto a floor moving the opposite direction at twice the speed. My mech stopped sliding relatively fast and I snagged both girls, stopping them from sliding onto the tram tracks. I put them down and powered down my mech, realizing that I had forgotten to do a preflight check. As I dropped down the last 2 meters to the floor, I noticed that I would need two new footpads, which I should be able to obtain easily. I pressed the button for my mech to be retracted into the storage cell, and sprinted up to the entrance, where I plugged my armor into a turret and glanced at the base in front of us. Gold Condor's.

Perfect target for lightweight mechs, but I wouldn't be able to get parts for mine's feet for a while. I noticed something unusual sitting on a hill in front of us. A row of Atlas' intending to slow us down. I grinned and commed the cockpit, up at the very top, "Turk, think you can punch through those things?" I heard the click of an electric transmission shifting into top gear. That was followed by the hissing of fuel flooding jumpjet channels. I gripped the stick on the turret as the jets fired, lifting almost thirty-five thousand tons of metal and fuel almost twenty meters in the air. We wouldn't be getting any records for the jump, but the landing would have gotten us the gold medal if anyone had cared to give us one. The wheels, almost as big as a mech, had landed on the Atlas' mashing them into thick bedrock with enough force to compress a solid block of steel into a sheet. The bedrock cracked underneath the impact and I heard a shout of glee from our driver as the ramming spikes dug into the base, lifting and tearing thick steel beams. Everyone at a turret started firing, clearing out the thicker rubble as quickly as possible until the enormous base skidded to a stop. Not particular impressive in itself, until you focused on the sheer size of a base meant to hold four thousand mechs of varying sizes, and their crew.

All of us turret gunners, and other pilots in engineering mechs jumped down from the extending ramp and into the wrecked base, which we started searching through for useful parts. Several mechs loaded useless scrap into a slot in the back, where it would be forged into useful ammunition, and if I was lucky, new feet for my mech. Several other mechs had big baskets loaded on their shoulders which we filled with foodstuffs and necessities. When one of the pilots spotted a herd of cattle, stampeding in their corral, trying to escape, we headed over there. I walked up to the herd, vaulting the fence easily in my armor. The cattle looked at me funny, probably because I was wearing a three meter tall suit of armor that lengthened my reach and speed, as well as enhanced my strength. I grabbed one in my arms, hefting it up onto my shoulder and carried it back to the carrier mech, where I stuck it in the basket. We had to repeat that process for the rest of the herd, which took around an hour, even with twenty of us moving the cattle. As I placed the final cow in a basket, I heard my in-line radio hissing. I turned to the carrier mech, who looked down at me and relayed the signal to those of us without room for a comm. package.

As the static cleared up, I heard Turk finishing a thought. "…fireflys. Get back to base. I repeat. Seven thousand ****ing fireflys. Get back to base." The large mech turned tail and sprinted back on its 8 meter legs. I took off as well, attempting to catch up to at least one to hitch a ride, because even with the suit it would still take me a few minutes to get back to base, one of the disadvantages of being on foot, and a kilometer away. When we did finally get back, Turk had already started the engines, and the ramp was half a meter off the ground. The taller five or six of us threw the shorter ones up onto the ramp and then each other, leaving just me, and a ramp that was six meters up. In my suit I was only three. I crouched and launched myself up, stretching my arms as far as I could, which was just barely enough for a man in a modified element to grab my arm. He pulled me up close enough for more men to join in and pull me up onto the rising ramp. By the time we got my feet over the edge, the ramp was almost all the way retracted. I dragged my feet out of the way of the closing door and glared up at the ceiling, as if the tech who had pushed the button knew I was still outside. I stood up and looked out the viewport at eye level for a normal person, which actually required kneeling.

I saw the horde of Fireflys charging towards us, firing their cannons in an effort to tear us down. It wouldn't have worked except that there were a lot of them. I ignored the fact that my personal mech was disabled, and ran to the next best thing, the 135 ton hulking war platform. It wasn't particularly fast, but it packed a serious punch, and was far more heavily armored than our base. I sprinted to it, shedding my armor because it wouldn't fit through the hatch. As I reached the feet, I yanked out the fuel hose, and dragged myself up through the hatch. Other pilots joined me, wearing only their shorts for the most part because armor was our clothing. I dropped into the pilot's seat and revved the engines as another man, Spider commed the gate crew, asking them to open the gate. They pushed the button and the gate at the front started opening. More men and several women joined us in the cabin of the platform, scrambling up into turrets or dropping into the engineering corridors in the floor.

I started forward and heard a voice say "You need to disengage the parking brake." I looked at the speaker and silently groaned. In the navigator's seat sat Patch, our blind gunner. No-one knew how he was so accurate, but we all were glad he could shoot. He couldn't navigate though. I disengaged the brake and the platform lunged forward, trodding out to the ramp, and down it.

When the feet squelched in the mud, I grabbed the inner-mech radio mic and shouted "Let's show these punks what it means to be Blood Scorpions!" The chorus of shouts rolled through the massive weapons platform as I charged the much more maneuverable fireflys. They dodged, obviously, as we stormed past them, and the turrets bristling out of the sides opened fire, tearing through them. Fireflys fell, overheating left and right as we stormed through them, occasionally stepping on one that was too slow. I heard a voice from behind and below me, echoing up. I didn't spare a glimpse, but I recognized the voice as that of Ray, one of the engineers. Her shout was followed by another, more urgent shout from Scrapps, the second engineer. This time I listened to their shouts,

"Hey! Chill with the rapid-fire up there! The reactor's overheating!"

I replied, "Yeah! I've noticed!" The panel in front of me flickered as the lasers sucked more power than the core could output safely. I heard a loud clang and suddenly all the lights went out. Several gunners howled in outrage, and I looked back as the mech stopped. I saw a grease covered head pop out of the floor with a white grin breaking up the dark goo.

Scraps coughed into her hand and lifted something onto the floor, "Do you know what this is?"

I looked at her incredulously, "Not a clue."

"Yeah, me neither, but it was blocking the cooling system. Also, we need more oil, and possibly some of that nitrogen based coolant. It'd be more efficient. She dropped back into the corridor and I heard several more clangs before the power came back and we continued our onslaught. After roughly an hour of this, the Fireflys stopped.

I smirked, until a fully armed Dire Wolf crested the hill, followed by Scraps popping out and saying, "We're almost out of fuel. We need to turn back. Now." I pulled the stick as far to the left as it would go, and the platform rotated smoothly on its six legs, turning back towards home. The legs thudded through the dirt and mud away from the Dire Wolf, moving at its top speed. The mech started to slow down as we approached the ramp, before stopping altogether with only four feet on the ramp. The engineers on the base were shouting at each other, and I saw the ramp start to retract, pulling the hulk up, and lifting the back two legs off the ground. I felt it start to tip backwards and I shoved the stick fully forward. With an abrupt suddenness, it lurched forward, but not under its own power.

I heard the voice of Dranzer singing into the microphone at his end as his customized skyhook crane dragged the platform through the doors and over to the appropriate socket, where he released us. As the gunners filed out and collected their discarded armor, I just sat there, thinking how lucky we had been. I stood up and walked over to the engineering hole in the floor, and helped the three people up. Two were covered in various mechanical fluids, while the third was clearly electrically charged. I grabbed a loose wire and dropped it in his hand, laughing as he clutched his hand in shock. The four of us dropped out, and I sent Zak, the one with the enormous amount of static build-up, to the gate to discharge some of that energy. I hefted the girl's armor and carried it to the lockers by the elevator, where we parted ways as they headed into the showers, and I deposited the armor in their lockers.

When all three suits of armor were fully put away I headed into the showers as well. The room was steamed up, so I really couldn't see anything until after I focused on the sparse X-rays in the room. I would have used infrared, but the steam was hot enough that that wouldn't have worked any better that trying to see through it with the normal visible light spectrum. I hosed myself off and grabbed a clean set of pants before heading onto the elevator platform, where I was joined by Scraps, Jay, Kitty, and Emily, along with Patch. The elevator reached the top and we split up into our individual squads. Kitty, Emily, and me all headed to the mini-apartment that the four people in the Widow-Maker group. I opened the door and let them in, prepared to follow them, until Turk walked up to me.

He grabbed me and started pulling me down the hall. "Draco, The general wanted to see you." He dropped me off in the general's office.

As I stood there, General Panic turned around, and spoke, "Draco, You…"

AN; Evil Cliffy. Should Draco get a promotion, or get in trouble for something he did?

The BSWF is roughly rectangular, 100M tall, 150M wide, 500M long, and sits10 M off the ground on it's 50M diameter solid titanium wheels.

What an ending. This is the longest chapter I've ever written.


	4. Mech descriptions

Blood Scorpion Mobile Facility

Length: 500 M

Height: 100 M

Width: 150 M

Weight: Empty, Dry: 5 Metric KiloTons

Full, Dry: 7 Metric KiloTons

Full, Wet: 10 Metric KiloTons

Max Load: 50 KiloTons

Capacity: 2000 Personnel

2000 90 T Mechs

Mobility: 4 TurboTrack sets, 5 50m hollowback wheels each

Powerhouse: 4 Ares 375 XL Fusion Generators, 4 Starship Grade Fission Reactors

Armor: 4m thick Titanium plating

Armament: 4 Spyke Turbolasers, 40 mobile Sonic Cannons

Runtime: Virtually Infinite

Levels: G: Ground level, Catwalk on underbelly

E: Engineering, 2m tall, under Hangar, Fuel Hoses, Water, Air, Oil, Coolant, Waste removal, Ventilation

H: Hangar level, 90m tall, Mech storage racks, Showers

1: Lower Residential, 2.5m tall, Cantina, Cafeteria, Engineer's quarters

2: Middle Residential, 2.5m tall, Bridge, Engineer/ New Pilot's quarters

3: Upper Residential, 5m tall, Mech Crew quarters

S: Upper surface, outside.

Min Crew: 100: 3 Pilot, 2 Nav, 4 Gunner, 4 Gun Eng, 4 Sensor Officer, 4 Cook, 3 Med, 6 Wheelmen, 70 General Engineer.

Top Speed: 200Km/h

Jump: N/A

Vertical travel: 10 M

Unorthodox uses of parts: Hollow wheels used as Butter churns, Washing Machines, Dryers, Swimming Pools, Fuel Tanks; Reactor exhausts used as oven/stove/charcoal maker; Hangar Doors used as big screen TV; Sonic cannons used as amplifiers; Mudplow used as battering ram

Motors: 4 10m High-Torque Pulse Cylinder engine block

Painbringer: Draco's Mech

Chassis: Custom forged rollcage

Legs: Sirrocco

Armament: 2 Argus Autocannons, 2 Kodiak arms, 2 Sirrocco PPC's, 4 Anti-Mech missile racks

Heatsinks: 4 sets of Awesome, 16 standard Sirrocco

Onboard computer: Cyclops/ Raven comm/ sensor splice

Underarmor: Kage Battle Armor

Devestator: Nostromo's Mech

Ares - Colossal Class Mech __ Cockpit _ Heavy Gauss Rifle

Prometheus (Not Salvaged) - Heavy Class Mech __ DNI controls (Custom built after research)

Sirocco - Heavy Class Mech __ Quadrapedal legs _ 2x Ultra AC/10

30x Ultra AC/20 (Various sources)

4x ER PPC

2x HAG Rifle 40

1x Streak SRM-6

1x LRM 20

Body: Head: None

Torso: Ares (Hades)

Legs: Sirocco

Right Arm: None

Left Arm: None

Jump System: None

Control system: Direct Neural Interface

Engine: 375 XL and Pitban 285

Special: Carries up to 60 tons of ammunition

Twin Furies: Girls Mech's

Standard DireWolf W/ Chainsaw and Railgun in place of standard arms

Urukhai Battle Platform

Pandora Echo, Enlarged cockpit, Tesla coils in jaw heatsinks, 3 external Kage mounts


End file.
